Tag: Japan

Nice move

In response to an increase in the number of women returning to the workforce during the economic downturn, the government has granted approval for daycare centers to open in private homes.

The Gap clothing store said it would open a shop in a 12-story building in Ginza after Louis Vuitton pulled out, citing sluggish sales of luxury goods. The store, due to open in 2011, will be the largest Gap in Japan.

The Imperial Household Agency announced that the emperor and empress would like to invite 100 couples from around the country to help celebrate their golden wedding anniversary on April 10. The couples, who have also all been married for 50 years, would join an hour-long tea ceremony at the Imperial Palace.

In response to a government move to lower the price of expressway tolls on weekends, JR West slashed fares by 40 percent on its Sanyo shinkansen line.

Oops

An empty cop car in Akita crossed a six-lane road and crashed into a house after a policewoman leaned in to the vehicle and started the engine.

A 39-year-old man in Miyagi Prefecture was arrested after some racy photos he’d saved on his computer ended up on the internet, along with his name and photos of his family. The snafu, which occurred through the Winny file-sharing network, involved some pics the man had taken up the skirt of a 16-year-old schoolgirl at a Sendai supermarket.

A Ginza optical clinic suffered a black eye when it was revealed that 67 of its Lasik surgery patients developed inflammations and other infections because its instruments were not properly sterilized.

Comings and goings

Getting plastered  

Bad news for criminals in resort areas everywhere: an Aomori police officer has come up with a spray that lets crime scene investigators make better plaster casts of footprints left in snow or sand.

The consumer point-card craze in Japan-and the complaints that have come with it-prompted the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry to develop guidelines concerning their use.

Expect to see carbon-emissions labels attached to products as diverse as stationery, beer, rice and batteries this summer, so consumers can tell just how much CO2 is released during the production, distribution and disposal of the items.

TV viewer ratings just became more accurate thanks to Tokyo-based Video Research, which developed technologies that will also monitor folks who watch broadcasts on personal computers or recordings of TV shows.

Priest Hirotsugu Inoue, 74, was arrested for sexually harassing a female congregant at the Ibaraki Catholic Church. It gets worse: Inoue admitted that he kissed the woman “about 70 times.”

Scientists say baby coral transplanted in Okinawa’s Sekisei Lagoon as part of a reef regeneration program are continuing their robust growth.

Baked

Officials in Gunma found “several hundred” cannabis plants in the ruins of a house that was gutted by fire. No word on whether the firemen battling the blaze inhaled.

A 22-year-old native of Tonga who plays rugby for Japan’s national team tested positive for marijuana and “other substances.”

Flights were delayed at Miyazaki Airport while an SDF crew removed the fuse from a World War II-era bomb that was buried nearby.

In other ordnance news, the government said it would set aside ¥1 billion to find and remove unexploded shells from World War II in Okinawa. It is estimated that this job will take 100 years.

Officials in Nara announced a major renovation of Daikodo hall in the Horyuji Temple, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

THAR’S GOLD IN THEM THAR PILES O’ CRAP!

According to Britain’s Telegraph newspaper, a small fortune in gold has been recovered from sludge at a sewage treatment facility in Nagano, apparently due to a number of precision equipment manufacturers using the precious metal in the area… ¥5 million worth so far.

Makers of electric toilet seats with warm-water bidets have issued warnings of potential fire risks after several incidents caused by defects and “improper usage.” Uh, how do you use this thing again?

In an effort to spruce up its image, Shibuya Ward is selling naming rights to its 14 public toilets. If you’ve ever dreamed of having a crapper named after you, here’s your chance.

Mount Asamayama, a snowcapped volcano 145 km northwest of Tokyo, blew its top, raining smoke and ash down on parts of the capital and prompting the good people of Karuizawa to cover their faces. No deaths or injuries reported.

In related news, a Japanese cosmetics company is pitching a face soap called Kingo Kingo, which contains volcanic ash spewed from Mount Sakurajima in Kagoshima.

You can’t make this stuff up

In an effort to get people to use less toilet paper, a “research center” called Japan Toilet Labo has been placing poems in public restrooms. The asinine verses include “Fold the paper over and over and over and over again” and “That paper will meet you for but a moment.”

After seven diners in Yamagata were sickened by improperly prepared fugu, the restaurant’s owner told police that he has “never eaten blowfish before, but I heard it was good, so I served it.”

Cops say a homeless man broke into an apartment in Chiyoda-ku and installed a “keylogger” virus on the resident’s computer, allowing him to steal some ¥9 million from the victim’s bank account.

Police in Osaka reported that a Buddhist priest who was upset over the noise made by delivery vehicles sprinkled salt on a shipping company’s doors in an attempt to make them rust. The priest initially told the cops he was using the salt to conduct a purification ritual.

Up, up and away!

Japan launched the world’s first satellite devoted to collecting data on greenhouse gas emissions. The unimaginatively named orbiter is called the Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite, or GOSAT.

The Yokohama Marine Accident Tribunal ruled that the high-tech destroyer Atago, which was on its way back to Japan from Hawaii at the time, was largely to blame for a fatal collision with a tuna fishing boat last year that killed the captain and his son.

Former bikini model Minako Komukai was arrested in Roppongi on suspicion of drug possession, which she denied. Cops maintain that the bikini babe and a male friend had some illegal stimulants on them in Shinjuku last June.

The Justice Ministry said it’s planning to eliminate a law requiring foreign students to renew their visas after two years. That means foreigners studying in Japan will be able to complete a four-year program without the hassle of getting a new visa.

In another sign of the bleak economic times, Kyoto University will not renew contracts of about 100 part-time employees whose five-year contracts expire in 2010, university officials said.

The Japanese movie Okuribito was nominated for an Academy Award for best foreign language film, while Tsumiki no Ie was nominated in the animated short film category.

Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshitaka Konoike, already in trouble after a magazine said he let a married woman stay at his Diet dorm room, was in more hot water after being accused of a possible security breach for letting a third person, probably the same woman, use his cellphone.

Good luck with that

At a summit meeting in Seoul, Prime Minister Taro Aso and South Korean president Lee Myung Bak vowed to “set aside their historical and territorial rows.”

Irish prime minister Brian Cowen and representatives of 70 Irish companies visited Tokyo on a trade mission, no doubt in response to the 18 percent drop in Japanese imports of goods from Ireland in 2008.

Local residents massed in protest after the Inagawa-kai crime syndicate set up its new headquarters in a building in Akasaka-about 250 meters from the HQ of a rival gang.

Japan’s Fair Trade Commission ordered ANA, JR East and three other companies to stop marketing a leather wallet as “Made in Japan” when in fact it was manufactured in China.

?In with the new

A record 99,390,000 people made traditional hatsumode (New Year’s visits) to shrines and temples this year, according to the National Police Agency, which for some reason keeps track of these things.

The most popular destinations were Meiji Jingu (3.19 million visitors), Chiba’s Narita-san Shinsho-ji (2.98 million) and Kawasaki Daishi (2.96 million).

This being Japan, some 342,000 people also prayed at the altar of Tokyo Disney Resort.

Upscale department store Takashimaya announced a 5 percent increase in the number of post-holiday shoppers this year, but sales actually fell because most people were just looking for “food and fukubukuro.

Going down?

The OECD predicts that Japan will sink to last among the world’s 22 major aid donors in 2009. After leading the world in overseas developmental assistance for much of the ’90s, Japan fell to third in 2006 and fifth in 2007.

The OECD also said that Japan’s per-capita GDP of $34,326 ranked 19th out of the 30 member nations and was the worst of the G7 nations.

A survey found that every single one of Japan’s 49 “Inochi no Denwa” suicide hotline centers are understaffed.

It was reported that local governments across the country are setting up miniature torii in places where illegal garbage disposal occurs in an effort to “appeal to the better nature of even the basest trash dumper.”

?What’s in a name?

The most popular name for baby girls born in 2008 was Aoi, while Hiroto maintained top position for little boys, according to publisher Benesse. Hina had been the most popular name for girls for three straight years but dropped to third place this year.

The popularity of the name Aoi has been linked to NHK’s popular period drama Atsuhime, which stars actress Aoi Miyazaki. The show grabbed a viewer rating of 28.7 percent in Kanto region for its final episode in December.

For the second straight Olympics, Japanese hammer-thrower Koji Murofushi benefited when two athletes who finished above him were disqualified for doping. Murofushi got bumped up to the bronze medal for his efforts in Beijing, and four years ago he was awarded the gold in the Athens Olympics because the initial winner later failed a drug test.

A research institute called CM Databank announced that, for the second consecutive year, Softbank Mobile ads starring a white dog as the father of a human family were the most popular TV commercials.

Welcome to 2009, The Year of the Ox

Are you the strong and silent type, seldom opening your mouth to speak but commanding attention when you do? Then you just might have been born in the Year of the Ox. Your stablemates share this easygoing attitude, but just like you, they can be stubborn and ill-tempered on those rare occasions. Notable Oxen include rocker Bruce Springsteen (1949), hope-monger Barack Obama (1961), actress-turned-musician Juliette Lewis (1973) and the human fish Michael Phelps (1985). In the spirit of the New Year, you might want to take up a Japanese hobby (see p. 14) and join this celebrated herd. But even if you don’t, we at Metropolis still wish you all the best in 2009.